Module 31 Human Nutritional Needs

Module 32 Modern Large-Scale Farming Methods

Module 33 Alternatives to Industrial Farming Methods

It is common for a farmer growing juicy tomatoes or sweet apples to become a local hero, but how often does a farmer become known throughout an entire country?

Joel Salatin of Swoope, Virginia, has been featured in a best-selling book and two major motion pictures. He is the author of numerous popular books, including Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer's Guide to Farm Friendly Food and Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front. His farming has drawn the attention of authors, filmmakers, and many others because he raises vegetables and livestock in a sustainable, organic way. Salatin understands that farming, done properly, has to replicate many of the processes that exist in nature.

Salatin calls himself a “grass farmer” because grass is at the foundation of the trophic feeding pyramid. On his Polyface Farm, he grows grass that is harvested, dried by the Sun, and turned into hay, which he feeds to cattle. The cattle are processed into beef and consumed by humans. But that is only one piece of the intricate food chain that Salatin has created on his farm—all without chemical pesticides or synthetic fertilizers.

As cattle graze a field, they leave behind large piles of manure that become the energy source for large numbers of grubs and fly larvae. Before the larvae can hatch into flies and cause a problem on the farm, Salatin brings in his “sanitation crew”—not people spraying pesticides, but chickens. As the chickens eat the larvae, they spread the nitrogen-rich cow manure and deposit some of their own. They continue to lay eggs, which are tasty and nutritious. Salatin explains that his method reproduces the process in nature in which birds typically follow herbivores to take advantage of their waste.

Salatin uses other animals to take care of the buildup of cow manure during winter when his cattle remain in a barn. Some farmers push that manure out the doorway and end up with huge manure piles in the spring but Salatin continuously layers straw, which consists of dried stalks of plants, and wood chips on top of the manure. He allows the floor of his barn to rise higher and higher during winter. Occasionally he throws down some corn. During the winter, the manure-straw-corn layers decompose and produce heat, which allows the cattle to use less energy and their food to stay warm. In spring, when the cattle go out to pasture, he brings pigs into the barn. Pigs have an excellent sense of smell, and they dig up the layers of manure and straw with their snouts to get at the fermented corn that they find especially delectable. Within a few weeks, the pigs provide Salatin with a barn full of thoroughly mixed compost that required no machinery to make: His animals have mixed the manure and straw for him as they gained nutrients and calories.

These are just two examples of the ways one farmer uses natural processes and knowledge of plants, animals, and the natural world to grow food for human consumption. Joel Salatin and other farmers interested in sustainable farming are finding ways to feed the human population by working with, not against, the natural world.

Sources: M. Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Penguin, 2007; R. Kenner (director/producer) and E. Schlosser (producer), Food Inc., Magnolia Home Entertainment, 2009.